# Loading files from outside the \`data\` folder
**URL:** https://discourse.processing.org/t/loading-files-from-outside-the-data-folder/40743
**Category:** Beginners
**Created:** [January 30, 2023, 8:12am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/loading-files-from-outside-the-data-folder/40743 "2023-01-30T08:12:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Brahvim](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Brahvim)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2023, 8:12am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/loading-files-from-outside-the-data-folder/40743/1 "2023-01-30T08:12:29Z")
Can one load files from outside the `data` folder of a sketch using functions like `loadImage()`? Apparently Java paths can look like:
`../../../../C:/Users/Brahvim/Projects/Photo Edits/Outputs/image.png`,
…but it doesn’t seem to work with `loadImage()`, at least.
Should I be using `java.net.URL`s for this instead?
As an extra topic, …how about loading them from a JAR?!
---
### Author:  [@Brahvim](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Brahvim)
#### Post date: [January 30, 2023, 8:18am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/loading-files-from-outside-the-data-folder/40743/2 "2023-01-30T08:18:24Z")
# Oh!
Sorry for faulty research on my part. _ **The following worked!:** _
```processing
void setup() {
size(500, 500);
image(loadImage("C:/Projects/Photo Edits/PFP_DoNotEDIT_DoNotDELETE.jpg"), 0, 0);
}
```
* * *
Immediate edit: It seems that `PApplet.loadJSONObject()` takes in a `java.io.File`, which is great, too!
The non-`static` version (`PApplet::loadJSONObject(String)`) assumes that our data would be in the sketch’s execution directory.
* * *
…Oh!
Right away, I also noticed that `PApplet::loadXML(String)` works with absolute paths. _Yay!_